Americans for Prosperity is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that aimed to educate and mobilize citizens on behalf of “limited government and free markets.” In order to “promote the American enterprise system,” AFP supports “cutting taxes and government spending,” “removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship and opportunity by sparking citizen involvement in the regulatory process,” and “restoring fairness to our judicial system.” Claiming more than 500,000 members nationwide, with 24 state chapters, Americans for Prosperity prides itself in its ability to mobilize “citizens to effectively make their voices heard in public policy issue campaigns.” AFP was formed after a split in the organization Citizens for a Sound Economy, and is closely tied to Koch Industries and the Koch family.

Escisió de CSE – notorious for its fake grassroots efforts, funneling millions of dollars of oil and coal industry cash across the nation to spread their message of global warming denial … Dallas Woodhouse, AFP’s North Carolina director, claimed: ‘Free markets work. They work all the time and they work every time.’” – Climate Science Watch posting, Americans for Prosperity: Distorting climate change science and economics in well-funded campaign – several top level AFP staff are former Koch Industries or Koch Foundation employees; and the Koch brothers fund the placement of summer fellows and associates at AFP

Ficha técnica

Fundadores:

Año de fundación:

2004

Sede actual:

Activos:

$956,813 (2006, valor máximo)

Presidente:

David Koch

Director:

Negacionistas de referencia:

Descripción propia:

Misión declarada:

Policy change by training and mobilizing grassroots Americans to engage their fellow citizens and encourage their political representatives to act in defense of individual freedom and economic opportunity – Austrian School of economics and public choice theory

Referencias

Lee Fang – Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory – The Wonk Room – 29/05/2009 – http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/“This week, AFP created their latest front group called “Patients United Now,” an entity set up to defeat health care reform. Patients United follows a familiar pattern AFP has used for their other front groups: create a new stand alone website, fill it with lines like “We are people just like you” to give the site a grassroots feel, and then use the new group to recruit supporters and run deceptive advertisements attacking reform. This “astroturfing” model has been used by AFP to launch groups pushing distortions against other progressive priorities: – The “Hot Air Tour” promoting global warming skepticism and attacking environmental regulations. – “Free Our Energy,” a group promoting increased domestic drilling. – The “Save My Ballot Tour,” a group that pays Joe the Plumber to travel around the country smearing the Employee Free Choice Act. – “No Climate Tax,” a group dedicated to the defeat of Clean Energy Economy legislation. – “No Stimulus,” a group launched to try to stop the passage of the Recovery Act.”

Brad Johnson – Americans For Prosperity Are Polluters For Astroturf – The Wonk Room – 14/10/2008- http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/14/afp-astroturf/“Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a nationwide front group founded and funded by the right-wing polluter Koch Industries, is notorious for its fake grassroots efforts, funneling millions of dollars of oil and coal industry cash across the nation to spread their message of global warming denial … Dallas Woodhouse, AFP’s North Carolina director, claimed: ‘Free markets work. They work all the time and they work every time.’”

Brad Johnson – Americans For Prosperity Are Polluters For Astroturf – The Wonk Room – 14/10/2008- http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/14/afp-astroturf/“Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a nationwide front group founded and funded by the right-wing polluter Koch Industries, is notorious for its fake grassroots efforts, funneling millions of dollars of oil and coal industry cash across the nation to spread their message of global warming denial … Dallas Woodhouse, AFP’s North Carolina director, claimed: ‘Free markets work. They work all the time and they work every time.’”

Rick Pilz – Koch Industries multibillionaire Koch brothers bankroll attacks on climate change science and policy – Climate Science Watch – 18/03/2010 – http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/koch-brothers-and-climate-change-denial_machine/“In addition to funding groups directly, the Koch brothers have developed other ways to assist like-minded organizations. For example, the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program (funding approximately 80 fellows each summer) and the year-long Koch Associate Program, fund the training and placement of individuals in organizations including groups that are leading the attacks on climate change science and scientists: Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C. Marshall Institute, National Center for Policy Analysis and the Heartland Institute … Among the groups currently active in the climate debate and with strongest support from the Koch brothers are: 1) The Cato Institute (SourceWatch profile). “The mission of the Cato Institute is to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace.” The Cato Institute was established in 1977, with Charles Koch being one of the co-founders. David Koch is on the Board of Directors. From 2001 through 2008, the Koch family foundations contributed $2.3 million to the Cato Institute, with funding in 2008 at $270,000. In addition, the Koch brothers fund the placement of summer fellows and associates at the Cato Institute; 2) Americans for Prosperity and (tax-exempt, nonprofit ) Americans for Prosperity Foundation. “AFP is an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets on the local, state and federal levels.” It was established in 2004 by David Koch, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AFP Foundation. For each of the three years, from 2005 through 2007, the Koch family foundations contributed more than $1 million to AFP. In 2008, the funding level doubled to $2 million (27% of AFP’s budget), bringing the total 2005-2008 contribution to $5.2 million. Information on Koch family contributions to the AFP 2009 budget is not yet available. In addition, several top level AFP staff are former Koch Industries or Koch Foundation employees; and the Koch brothers fund the placement of summer fellows and associates at AFP. See the Climate Science Watch posting, Americans for Prosperity: Distorting climate change science and economics in well-funded campaign, for details on the climate change activities of Americans for Prosperity.”

Joseph Romm – Fox News blurts out its agenda: “Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through…. First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions,” and then put “the whole corrupt ‘green jobs’ concept outside the bounds of the political mainstream.” – Climate Progress – 08/09/2009 – http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/08/fox-news-kerpen-americans-for-prosperity-green-jobs-van-jones/“Having taken Van Jones down, the job destroyers and climate destroyers of the right wing most certainly smell blood … Phil Kerpen, ”policy director for Americans for Prosperity, has laid out the right-wing strategy for how “the Van Jones affair could be an important turning point in the Obama administration,” in a piece on FOXNews.com. AFP is “pro-tobacco industry” group that “worked around the U.S. in recent years to defeat” smoke-free workplace laws (as SourceWatch notes) – and is now fighting for the big corporate polluters to block climate and clean energy action.”

John M. Brother – Climate Change Doubt Is Tea Party Article of Faith – The New York Times – 20/10/2010- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/politics/21climate.html“Groups that help support Tea Party candidates include climate change skepticism in their core message. Americans for Prosperity, a group founded and largely financed by oil industry interests, has sponsored what it calls a Regulation Reality Tour to stir up opposition to climate change legislation and federal regulation of carbon emissions. Its Tea Party talking points describe a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions as “the largest excise tax in history.” FreedomWorks, another group supported by the oil industry, helps organize Tea Party rallies and distributes fliers urging opposition to federal climate policy, which it calls a “power grab.”

Wiki – Theocracy Watch – Wikipedia – 31/12/2008 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheocracyWatch“TheocracyWatch is a project run by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP), located at Cornell University. It was founded by Joan Bokaer, an environmental activist because, she says, “After the 2000 election she realized that few people understood that the religious right had taken working control of the Republican Party…” (ref). TheocracyWatch’s major area of interest is what it considers to be the influence of dominionism in the U.S. government … The Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy is an independent not-for-profit agency and an affiliate of Cornell University with administrative offices in Cornell’s Anabel Taylor Hall. TheocracyWatch is one of sixteen projects sponsored by CRESP.”

Hot Air Tour: Live from Cancun – Hot Air Tour – http://hotairtour.org/index.php?content=newpa“The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 16) will meet in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 – December 10 2010; and Americans for Prosperity is taking our Hot Air Tour there to meet them. The COP meetings are a series of conferences aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions; transferring wealth and technology from developed to developing nations; and raising the cost of traditional energy in order to prop up politically popular new sources.”

Brad Johnson – Contradicting His Deputy, Americans For Prosperity’s Tim Phillips Says Climate ‘Science Is Far From Settled’ – Think Progress – 16/11/2010 – http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/16/tim-phillips-global-warming/“Speaking at the Center for American Progress last month, Phil Kerpen, the policy director for the right-wing astroturf group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), claimed that his organization doesn’t “engage the science” of global warming, but rather the economics of implementing measures to address it. However, appearing on CNN Monday night, AFP president Tim Phillips angrily challenged the scientific consensus on the threat of global warming pollution. The powerful tea party group helped sweep a wave of Republican climate deniers into Congress earlier this month, serving the economic interests of AFP’s founder David Koch, the right-wing billionaire pollution scion. In the CNN interview with Elliot Spitzer, Phillips argued that “Al Gore” and “the left” are guilty of “arrogance” for believing in global warming pollution.”

Joseph Romm – Tim Phillips on climate policy: “If we win the science argument, it’s game, set, and match” – Climate Progress – 29/11/2010 – http://climateprogress.org/2010/11/29/americans-for-prosperity-tim-phillips-climate-science-denier/“At an October blogger briefing at the Heritage Foundation, Americans For Prosperity president Tim Phillips explained his organization’s plans for defending global warming pollution. A day after his policy director, Phil Kerpen, claimed the organization did not question the science of climate change at a Center for American Progress Action Fund event, Phillips relished in the success of the “UK email scandals” for convincing people of a scientific “conspiracy,” saying “over the last ten years it appears it was cooling and not warming.” “If we win the science argument, I think it’s game, set, and match” for “the left,” he expounded. Phillips also discussed his plans as head of the astroturf group to make the Environmental Protection Agency an “albatross” and to kill “the myth of green jobs … “We have to make the Environmental Protection Agency an albatross””